THE GAPERS. 10J 



dawned before it is on the alert, and occupied in twittering its summons to the rest of the world to 

 be up and about their work. Its voice can boast no real music, but its notes are so sprightly, and so 

 evidently the outpouring of the bird's own joyous sensations, as it turns its breast in all directions, 

 flaps its wings, and indulges in a variety of animated gestures, that it cannot fail to please the hearer, 

 and impart an additional charm to the beauties of the first hours of a bright early summer's day. 



The flight of this species is peculiarly light and graceful, and very far superior to its movements 

 upon the ground, over which it crawls with an awkward and helpless step, its little feet appearing 

 quite unable to support its body, either when walking or perching. When upon the wing the powers 

 of the Swallow are seen in their full perfection, and few objects are more beautiful than one of these 

 birds, as it skims over the face of the country, now soaring upwards to a great height, and now sinking 

 suddenly down until it almost sweeps the ground ; then changing its course, it flies backwards and 

 forwards with amazing celerity, pursuing its way with untiring speed, and not unfrequently indulging 

 in a bathe in the lake or stream over the bosom of which it delights to skim. This proceeding, like 

 all its other evolutions on the wing, is rapidly and easily accomplished ; the bird sinks close to the 

 water, and suddenly darts beneath its surface, reappearing in less than a moment, and then flies off to 

 a distance to shake the moisture from its plumage. The Swallow devours enormous numbers of flies, 

 beetles, and butterflies ; when in pursuit of prey it either keeps near the ground, or skims through 

 the air at an altitude regulated according to the barometrical state of the atmosphere, insomuch that 

 from this fact has arisen the popular idea that its movements indicate the kind of weather to be 

 expected. 



The eggs (see Fig. 35, Coloured Plate X.), from four to six in number, are laid about May, and 

 are incubated entirely by the female. If the season is fine the male ministers to her wants, and the 

 young are hatched in twelve days ; but should the weather be cold or wet the unfortunate mother is 

 expected to provide for herself, and must therefore leave her nest ; if this is the case the nestlings do 

 not quit the shell for about seventeen days. The young grow rapidly, and before they are fully 

 fledged may be often seen peering and gaping above the sides of the nest, until able to accompany 

 their parents during their daily excursions ; yet, even then, they return to the nest for a short period 

 as evening closes in. No sooner has the first family become self-supporting than the female again 

 lays, but this time the eggs are fewer than before, and it is not uncommon for this second brood to be 

 hatched so late in the season that the nestlings are too weak to accompany the rest of the family 

 when the time for migrating arrives. A Spanish proverb says, " He who could destroy a Swallow 

 could kill his own mother ; " but, in spite of the reprobation of the act expressed in this popular adage, 

 hundreds and thousands of these useful and sprightly birds are annually slaughtered out of mere 

 wanton mischief, not only in that country, but in all parts of Europe, and yet few members of the 

 feathered creation are more innocent, more useful, or more ornamental to the landscape. " The 

 Swallow," says Sir Humphry Uavy, " is one of my favourite birds, and a rival of the Nightingale, for 

 he cheers my sense of seeing as much as the other does my sense of hearing. He is the glad prophet 

 of the year, the harbinger of the best season ; he lives a life of enjoyment, among the loveliest forms 

 of Nature. Winter is unknown to him, and he leaves the green meadows of England in autumn, for 

 the myrtle and orange groves of Italy, and for the palms of Africa. He has always objects of pursuit, 

 and his success is secure. Even the beings selected for his prey are poetical, beautiful, and transient. 

 The ephemerae are saved by his means from a slow and lingering death in the evening, and killed in a 

 moment when they have known nothing but pleasure. He is the constant destroyer of insects, the 

 friend of man, and a sacred bird. His instinct, which gives him his appointed season, and teaches 

 him when and where to move, may be regarded as flowing from a Divine source ; and he belongs to 

 the oracles of Nature, which speak the awful and intelligible fiats of a present Deity." 



